Choose Life, Not Tobacco |
Smoking is a habit that drains your money and kills your slowly, one puff after another…. |
Smoking helps you to relax… in Death-bed |
Smoking is injurious not only to you, but for the ones around you also… Quit before it’s late |
Smoking Leaves an Unseen Scar, it fill your Insides with Toxins and Tar |
Only a fool would put his lips, at the other end of a burning fie. |
Irony is, Tobacco companies kill their Best Customers. |
You’re a Fool, if you think smoking is cool. |
Tar the Roads, not your lungs. |
Be brighter, put down the lighter. |
Put the smoke out, before it put you Out. |
Who’s going to retire on your hard-earned dollars… You or some tobacco company executive? |
A Friend in Deed won’t make you smoke that weed. |
Smokers die young, be smart, don’t start. |
Every time you light up A cigarette, you are saying that your life isn’t worth Living…. |
Don’t let being on a ventilator ultimate become, the reason you eventually quit smoking. Save lungs while you can. |
If you can’t stop smoking…. Cancer will. |
Cigarettes are like Squirrels. They are perfectly harmless until you put one in your mouth and light it on fire.

Deepak Kumar, a lifelong smoker of ITC’s Wills cigarettes, and Mohammad Azazur Rehman, who has smoked Pehelwan chaap bidis all his life, are now appreciating the brand choices and lifestyle choices that have made their lives so sweet! Both Deepak and Azazur come to Tata Memorial Hospital for quarterly checkups — a lifelong reminder that one must reluctantly live with the lifestyle choices that one willingly makes early in life! And so the duo use ITC Classmate Notebooks & ITC Classmate Stationery to track their dates at Tata Memorial. It’s a good idea to write ones wills early while smoking Wills, jokes Deepak, a former commissioner of Central Excise! Deepak now wears a fashionable scarf to cover that designer hole in the throat (it’s the Wills Classic look!), and he plans to walk the ramp at Wills Fashion Week 2013 as a model to show off his exquisite range of designer scarves & exclusive fashion accessories! He hopes to open a store sponsored by ITC Ltd, naturally. ITC Wills Lifestyle Stores, Organizers of Wills Fashion Week, hope you are listening? Mr Y C Deveshwar, Sir, surely, you will not disappoint an ardent fan of ITC brands, who makes it a point to stay at ITC Hotels whenever he travels?

On World No Tobacco Day, CNN-IBN aired the news about an RTI query filed by Voice of Tobacco Victims, which revealed that public sector concerns like Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) and Unit Trust of India (UTI Limited) had a large chunk of shareholding in cigarette companies like ITC and VST. This violates an international treaty India signed in 2004.

Anti-tobacco groups are questioning the nexus between the government and tobacco majors.Government-owned Life Insurance Corporation of India has invested in nearly a hundred crore shares (99,58,91,658 shares) of ITC Ltd, VST Industries and DS Group. Cigarettes and Tobacco products, which kill lakhs of Indians every year, are the main source of revenue for these companies.

30-yr-old tobacco user, who has lost a major portion of his tongue to cancer after undergoing three surgeries, issues fervent plea not to encourage tobacco firms by investing in them. “Why and how do our government-owned companies invest so hugely in Indian Tobacco Company?” is what Tali Kamsi asks in gestures, lying on the hospital cot. After the third surgery, which has left a major part of his tongue removed, his speech is quite incoherent and his mother, Kengam, played interpreter when Mumbai Mirror met Tali. He started smoking when he was 22 years old, has tongue cancer. He has already undergone two surgeries at a hospital in the capital of his home state, Itanagar.

News X carried a shocking story of how Government is heavily investing in Tobacco Companies in violation of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. The story also raised the issue of Political Parties receiving donations from Tobacco Companies.

Can this be a reason why Government has been dilly dallying on several important anti-tobacco legislations? How can policy makers act against Tobacco Companies if they are receiving goodies from that industry?

Should government-run companies invest in tobacco firms? This is the question that Voices of Tobacco Victims (VoTV), a campaign for cancer patients, has raised after its recent query under the RTI Act revealed that the Life Insurance Corporation of India has invested up to Rs 3,500 crore in various tobacco companies.

“It’s the greatest irony that the government spends Rs 10,000 crore on treatment of tobacco-related illnesses while investing Rs 3,500 crore in the industry causing it,” said Dr Pankaj Chaturvedi, a senior cancer surgeon with Tata Memorial Hospital who is associated with VoTV.

VoTV wants the government to take an anti-tobacco stance especially since it was among the first to ratify the global anti-tobacco framework. The framework was worked out by the UN after it was medically established that tobacco products are harmful and could cause cancer.

VoTV members have written to several Ministers in the states and in New Delhi to stop ITC’s campaign such as “ITC-Classmate Ideas for India Challenge”, which engage school children and College students. India’s leading cigarete manufacturer Indian Tobacco Company, is embarking on a nationwide campaign to improve their dwindling brand image school children and college youth. This is also a kind of surrogate advertisement. We are dismayed that they are being allowed to go ahead with such a sinister surrogate campaign at a time with Ministry of Health has embarked on an ambitious National Tobacco Control Program.

“Voice Of Tobacco Victims” is the brainchild of Dr Pankaj Chaturvedi, Associate Professor, Tata Memorial Hospital. He always wondered how a cancer causing substance, that kills millions every year, be sold so freely and advertized so brazenly. He was disturbed by the sight of ever increasing number of young cancer patients visiting his cancer clinic every day. Most of them, owing to advanced stage, died within 5 years of diagnosis. Those who survived, lived with severe depression, dejection, disfigurement and disability.

Rather than being a silent witness of a crime and wait for someone else to find a solution, he decided to spend some time in tobacco control activities. He planned to make tobacco victims as the public face of the war on tobacco. He decided to help tobacco victims get justice and help them raise a war cry against the very industry that they patronized for decades. He envisaged that no one can withstand this formidable force that is driven by pure passion. His idea was supported by Dr PC Gupta and Dr Surendra Shastri of Action Council Against Tobacco India. Finally, this experiment began on 31st May, 2008 with a small group of 10 cancer patients of Dr Pankaj Chaturvedi. The experiment proved immensely successful… these cancer patients shocked the media and audience with their grit and determination. They have only one aim for their countrymen “ This is what tobacco did to us, we want to save others!”

1. The first meeting of VoTV happened on 31st May 2009 in Tata Memorial Hospital. The impact of this meeting could be gauged from the fact that it was covered by 36 news papers including the most popular one. For more details

2. Inspired after the meeting, one of the members filed a compensation Suit against formidable Indian Tobacco Company (originally BAT) for 10 million rupees. He is a larynx cancer patient whom I treated 2 years back. Despite ITC’s powerful legal team, the case did not get rejected. Several other members have filed for compensation in local consumer redressal forums all over the country.Mumbai Mirror Link 01

3. In September, 2010 during National Congress on Tobacco & Health at Mumbai, the VoTV members cornered the Health Minister and presented them a Charter of Demands and a huge canvas with more than thousand signatures. This event was published in 16 news papers including the prominent ones. See the news coverage

4. Many members have started their own mini campaigns at village levels and district level with their own innovative ideas which has given it as shape of nationwide campaign with great media coverage. See the news coverage

10. VoTV members partcipated in a unique campaign along with Directors of the Regional cancer centers in several states of India on 31st May, 2011. These Directors are opinion leaders of oncology in India. Seventeen such Directors wrote letters to the Prime Minister and Health minister to ban Gutka and Pan Masala in India. This campaign had a dramatic impact on Media and Society at large. This activity was covered by 27 leading news papers of different states. One such coverage

11. With World Lung foundation VoTV members developed a powerful Television campaign on smokeless tobacco showing a 24 years boy who died of throat cancer while the campaign was still running – See the news coverage

12. VoTV members also consented to participate in a hugely popular online campaign, with World Lung Foundation and several other NGOs, against smokeless tobacco – See the news coverage

13. Three of the VoTV members are also volunteered to become interventions in the ongoing Supreme Court Case against Gutka/Pan Masala. See the news coverage

14. Most of the VoTV members have emerged as strong health advocates in their local community educating people about early signs of cancer, diagnosis, treatment etc.

15. They have been participating in most of the tobacco control meetings as important stakeholders. For example, VoTV members attended the music release of Shaan at Tata Memorial Hospital – See the news coverage

16. VoTV members have also been participating alongside doctors in BBC world service media workshops. It is noticeable that their presence offers an additional impact to media coverage.

17. Lobbying with Members of Parliament and the policy makers – On, 11th February and 17th March, the VOTV members held a meeting in New Delhi which turned out to be the “mother of all meeting”. They shared their plight with Ministers, Bureaucrats, media, public in a very emotional way. These meetings not only sensitized the media and policy makers but also sensationalized the issue of smokeless tobacco. The media response was beyond expectations.

To,
Shri Anna HazareSubject: While other forms of corruption makes us poorer, corruption in Tobacco is killing 1 million Indian every year and many of them are young!

Dear Annaji,
We, the victims of corrupt practices of many Ministers of this Government, write to you to extend our support and to thank you for your worthy endeavour towards purging the society and the Government of corruption. We’re survivors of cancers caused by tobacco, who are with you in your struggle to ensure that the Government is run by people who don’t harbour and promote private interests at the cost of public interests. In India, we lose 1 million lives every year to the use of tobacco, which is a habit that is picked up at a very early age in the absence of any clear warnings about its detrimental health effects.
Pictorial warnings, which are an important provision of our tobacco control law, Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act, 2003 (COTPA) were first notified in July, 2006. These were to be implemented by Feb, 2007 but were delayed and diluted numerous times by a Group of Ministers (GOM) with known tobacco industry interests. It took a Supreme Court judgment to enforce this provision in 2009. As per law, the pictorial warnings are to be changed every year but a GOM with known tobacco interests have been repeatedly delaying its implementation.
A recent RTI makes clear that this Group, comprises of Pranab Mukherjee, who comes from a bidi rolling constituency; Praful Patel, who is a known bidi king and has made millions by selling death to young consumers in the form of bidis; Jaipal Reddy has an experience of over two decades of fighting for tobacco issues. This group has been intervening in a health related area, which is not part of their mandate to serve their own tobacco interests. Abhishek Manu Singhvi (Congress Rajya Sabha member) is in the payroll of Gutka/Pan Masala industry, Arun Jaitly ( BJP leader of opposition in Rajya sabha) is a lawyer of Indian Tobacco Company. There are several MPs and MLAs who directly and indirectly patronize this sinful industry. Tobacco Companies offer huge sums of money to the election funds of political parties. Government makes laws that are favorable to the tobacco Industry rather than the public. Moreover, law enforcing agency turn a blind eye to violations of anti-tobacco laws for obvious reasons. Rather than discouraging tobacco industry, GOI conferred highest civilian award to the Chairman of a leading cigarette company in year 2011.

We urge you, Annaji, to fight this battle against corruption on our behalf. We urge you, to fight this battle against merchants of death. We urge you, to fight this battle for a healthier India. We urge you, to take up the issue of pictorial warnings with the Government and ask them to not delay its implementation any further. You’re our lone saviour.
We hope that you will not disappoint us and help us in saving the lives of many like us.

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About Us

The name “cancer” makes everyone fearful. This word is considered synonymous with death. No one would ever know the pain associated with this disease more than us who had undergone this unfortunate experience. We live under threat of re-occurrence of the disease and the fear of death always haunts us.